Mini Bathroom Makeover Before and After

When my husband and I bought our (almost) new house in 2005 we loved everything about it except for the kitchen and baths. The previous owner/builder had very different tastes than us and we didn’t care for his choice of tiles or cabinetry. It didn’t seem like a big deal at the time because we thought we would refinance in a year or so and redo both the kitchen and the master bathroom. Well then of course the recession hit and our house lost about 18% in value in the first two years. Refinancing was no longer an option so we just had to make do. The kitchen is still as it was but this past weekend I gave the master bathroom a final cosmetic make over.

When we moved in, this is what I had to work with for tiles.

existing bathroom tile

Pink and white tiles…NOT the first thing that comes to mind when I think of my dream bathroom.

The vanity was orangy cherry wood with a green laminate top. Unfortunately I don’t have a photo of the green laminate because we did change that out to a white quartz top. Since I had pink and green as my fixed elements I decided to just embrace the pink and green color scheme. I painted the walls green to match to laminate counter top and I found a pink and green large scale botanical print to pull everything together.

bathroom window treatment

I also had a collection of McKenzie Childs plates and knobs that fit my color scheme perfectly so I used my plates as wall art and switched out the stock vanity knobs to my McKenzie Child’s ones. Here is what our master bathroom looked like until this past weekend.

master bath before

So what continued to bug me about this bathroom? I could live with the pink tiles and the pink and green color scheme but I could not stand looking at that orange vanity that related to nothing and stuck out like a sore thumb. Well this past weekend I decide to paint the vanity. I will admit I was nervous… now I don’t have a moments hesitation when it comes to painting furniture but cabinetry is different. What if I messed up? Also, being basically lazy when it comes to painting I didn’t want the hassle of cleaning, sanding and priming those cabinets so I decided to use the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. You can read more about my experience with the paint HERE.

I removed the knobs and just started painting. I choose the Pure White as I wanted the vanity to match the white molding, white toilet and white tub and shower (which is to the left of the photo).

As soon as the first brush stroke went on I started to relax. The paint covered beautifully and I knew had made the right decision.

Pure White going on Cherry wood

I wanted a smooth finish so I painted the first coat, lightly sanded with a 600 grid sand paper, painted a second coat, lightly sanded again and then applied 2 coats of wax. I thought the Pure White might be just a touch too “white” so I decided to tweak the final color just a bit by mixing a tiny amount of the dark wax in with the clear wax. It came out just how I wanted it and I could not be happier.

Here is the before again (minus the top knob):

Vanity before

and here is the after:

vanity after

SOOO much better don’t you think? Oh, and that white chair over to the left..that is going to get a coat of Pink paint ASAP.

bathroom after

Now I just have decide if I am brave enough to take on the huge job of painting the kitchen cabinets which are the exact same orange Cherry wood as what was in the bathroom. I know many people love the look of Cherry…it is just not for me.

Thanks Sherry, I was worried about painting the cabinetry too but now that I have done it I will do it again for sure…maybe not the kitchen cabinets but I am already thinking about a color for the same ugly cherry cabinet in the second bathroom.